Online sales help New Look back on right track

British
fashion chain New Look is making a profit again: during the financial year 2013,
that ended at the end of March, New Look realised a gross profit of 3.1 million
pound (3.6 million euro). Last year the company made a loss of 54.5
million pound (64 million euro).

Online
growth compensates offline decline

The
improvement is partly due to the rise in sales, which climbed by 2.5% in the
past financial year to 1.48 billion pound (1.7 billion euro). This was mainly
because of much higher online sales, up by no less than 50.1%. Those
compensated the slight decline in physical shops.

The strong
expansion of online sales, already worth 95 million pound (111 million euro),
was the result of new, more user-friendly online shop and a broader offer with
some exclusive products.

Closing
shops on home market, expansion abroad

New Look
also used a cost-effective style and company processes improved to increase their efficiency. This caused the closing of 42 onerous
British shops, while a quarter of the remaining 589 locations in the United
Kingdom received a thorough makeover. The rest will receive the same treatment
over the next three years.

Outside of
the home market the number of shops raised from 499 to 549. In March 2014 New
Look is planning to open is first shop in China. Hundreds of new shops are set
to open in the near future, with Russia, Poland and South Korea also on the
books for expansion.

New Look is
owned by founder Rom Singh and the investment funds Apax and Permira. The chain
has more than 1.100 locations in 32 countries.

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